On a more serious note the armor looks very interesting. On paper the hull doesn’t seem that impressive but the angle on the ufp seems extremely high, higher than the angle on the pike of the 110. Add to this the absence of weaker shoulderplates and tiny 150mm cupolas…

The lower plate looks pretty bad, 150-160-ish effective but still, this thing is going to be like the IS-7 of tier 8 hulldown.

Guys, this is very likely replacement to IS-6. Look at it; its similar in both design and playstyle. It has however BL-9 instead of D-25T, so its more suited for full MM. It doesnt have as stalinium armor as IS-6 though (better turret, but that big fat LFP means that it can just roll up on its enemies like IS-6).

IS-3 is overall better at most things, expect this thing has even more trollish side armor and very well sloped (but thinner) UFP.

This is much better option. IS-3A is worse IS-3 clone with higher RoF. Thats too boring and uninteresting tank as “main” tier 8 RU premium HT (aka one that is in-game store permanently). Kirovets-1 in return is just IS-3A with flat UFP and stock IS-3 turret. That also seems uninteresting.

While this is yet-another-russian-premium it atleast has its small own unique taste, aswell as its pretty similar to IS-6 so it makes alot of sense this tank replacing the IS-6.

Although I agree about the 3A, the Kirovets would also offer an unique playstyle over the regular IS-3, despite a similar appearence.

No pike nose and thicker plates mean you could actually angle it instead od purely relying on BS bounces. Coupled with a softer turret and worse gun handling, it would be quite different gameplay-wise.

Anyway, between the Kirovets and this one, one will very likely be another russkie CW reward. I’d bet the Kiro will be a reward, only because it looks more powerful (IS-5-like)

Soviet Tier10 MT creators were getting in lead by baked vehicle count, so Tier8 Soviet Prem HT creator team strikes back with another unique design!
Next moove is on MT team again.
We will continue to watch this epic battle between two teams with the most unique and interesting design ideas.

To be completely fair, we’ve only technically received 3 of those vehicles. The other ones have yet to be released, and who knows if they even will be released as regular premiums. Remember, the VK 100.01 & BatChat 25t AP both started off as premiums in the game files, but they’re being (and have been, in the case of the Bat) put into the regular tree.

Still, while I do think this one is a good IS-6 replacement (better than the rest, considering how it was basically an alternate version of it), I do agree that the tier 8 Russian HT spam is getting a bit ridiculous.

Yeah, I think it’d make a nice tier 8 premium for the med lines (with adjusted stats, of course, but hopefully the same mobility), but there are already two (CDC & M4A1), so I don’t see that happening anytime soon, if at all.

The armor is pretty good, yes, but the lower plate is big on flat ground, the armor loses most of its effectiveness when being fired at from above (and most tanks are taller than this), and it’s a pikenose, so angling isn’t easy (plus, it has the hull cheeks on the rear, so reverse-sidescraping isn’t really an option to negate this). Also, the turret roof appears to have the same problem as the IS-6/IS-3/IS-5/IS-3A/etc., as it’s not exactly thick, and the cupolas are taller than most of these vehicles (minus the IS-6) – even I’m surprised how often I hit (and get hit in) the cupolas of tanks like the IS-6, which don’t seem very large. Seems like the reload is worse than most of the other 122mm-equipped HTs at tier 8, too, and I’d imagine the soft stats are probably trash (like the IS-3A’s) to compensate, so I don’t really think this thing is going to be too OP for a premium, especially in comparison to vehicles such as the T26E5.

Forgot to mention this in the previous comment: It also seems pretty slow, since it has low hp/ton, top speed, traverse speed, and strangely un-Soviet terrain resistance values. So it won’t be able to shift like the IS-3/T-10.

IS-7 has 150mm UFP.
Faced frontally your shell will hit the UFP at an angle of cca 65°. WoT normalization lowers the angle by the constant 5. We are left with shell having to pen the UFP at an angle of 60°
That means effective armor is 150/ cos(60) = 300mm
Obj 252 has very similar UFP layout which means we can predict that the angle will be the same.
-> 90/ cos(60) = 180 UFP
-> 90/ cos(50) = 140 LFP

You will need to pen 180mm of armor when this tank is perfectly angled towards you.

When I see this all I can think is it not time for a 110 buff with hd model? I used to love that tank, but it’s lacking way behind many of the new tanks and hd models of old ones. Also, how many Russian tier 8 heavy tanks is there? It’s getting ridiculous.. Find more tanks for other nations.